A CLUBBER accused of killing a fellow reveller with a fire extinguisher bragged about the brutal attack moments later, a murder jury has heard.

James Redmile-Gordon, 29, of Charlwood, near Horley, allegedly struck father-of-two Ovidiu Pop with the fatal blow after a night out at the Honey Club in Brighton.

Lewes Crown Court heard on Tuesday how he was said to have told friends afterwards: "I wanted to kill him and I f***ing enjoyed it.

"I hit him as hard as I could. You should have seen his head come apart."

Romanian businessman Mr Pop, 28, from Portslade, Sussex, was taken to Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital but died from a fractured skull a week after the incident last August.

The court was told Redmile-Gordon dumped the murder weapon in a public bin and changed his clothes.

When arrested he told police he intended to use the fire extinguisher on his alleged victim only as a prank because he thought it would be funny to humiliate him and cover him with foam.

Prosecutor Christina Laing, QC, said: "It is the Crown's case that the defendant and a friend had been in a minor altercation with Mr Pop and a friend of his.

Fractured skull

"This was after they made a rather gross sexual comment about a girl in the defendant's party who was exceedingly drunk.

"When the scuffle was over, it's the Crown's case that the defendant deliberately fetched a fire extinguisher from a vehicle being driven by another friend who was giving them a lift home.

"Having fetched it, he returned to where Mr Pop was and struck him a forceful blow with the fire extinguisher to the left hand side of Mr Pop's head.

"The blow caused Mr Pop to fall heavily to the ground, resulting in a fractured skull and such trauma to the brain that there was never any real prospect that medical services would be able to save his life.

"After the incident he [Redmile-Gordon] left the scene in the vehicle being driven by his friend and disposed of the fire extinguisher en route home by dropping it in a public bin.

"Once he arrived at home he changed out of the clothes he was wearing but witnesses noted down the registration of the car that he had been seen to get into."

Cider and cocaine

The court heard that, just half an hour after the alleged attack, police arrested Redmile-Gordon on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

Mrs Laing told how Redmile-Gordon "repeatedly lied", claiming he had not been involved in any incident on the night of the alleged attack at 5am on August 17 last year.

The defendant told police he had drunk four to six bottles of Magners cider and had snorted two lines of cocaine.

Following Mr Pop's death at the Hurstwood Park neurological centre on August 25, police charged Redmile-Gordon with murder.

In a statement he accepted he had struck Mr Pop with a fire extinguisher but said it was in self defence, forgetting he had it in his hand.

The jury was shown CCTV footage which did not capture the moment the blow was struck but showed Redmile-Gordon allegedly heading towards Mr Pop carrying the extinguisher.

The court heard it was later dumped in a rubbish bin and found by police after hours of searching at the city's amenity tip.

Mrs Laing added: "The Crown say this case is undoubtedly about misplaced pride and the need not to lose face, aggravated no doubt by the consumption of alcohol and drugs."